Contents

Overview

Design

The word "kuruma" means "automobile" in Japanese (車, くるま), which may suggest that the car is of Japanese origin. "Kuruma" may also be a reference to the Toyota Camry, the bestselling midsize sedan in the United States, with "Camry" being an Anglicized phonetic transcription of the Japanese word kanmuri (冠, かんむり) for "crown". (Toyota has a naming tradition of using the word "crown" for primary models, starting with the Toyota Crown in 1955, continuing with the Toyota Corona and Toyota Corolla, the Latin words for "crown" and "small crown", respectively.) Kuruma is also Arabic for "pussy".

The GTA III rendition of the car is strongly based on a 2001-2006 Chrysler Sebring sedan or a 1998-2004 Dodge Intrepid (both the design and the fact that the car has a longitudinally mounted engine in Xbox version), and it comes with uncolored (gray) bumpers and trims, giving it the appearance of a base model. The Kuruma in GTA III is also said to bear some resemblance to a Buick Century. For GTA Liberty City Stories, the Kuruma has slight cosmetic changes to make it look like a 1995-2000 Dodge Stratus or a generic Japanese sedan during the late 90's, the front appearing to resemble a 1994–1997 Honda Accord, and its bumpers and trim are body-colored to give it a more upscale look, although there still are base Kurumas with unpainted trims and bumpers, especially if the car is sprayed white or grey.

The Kuruma is the first car made available to the player in both GTA III and GTA Liberty City Stories, in the missions "Give Me Liberty" and "Home Sweet Home", respectively, probably due to the fact that it handles relatively neutrally. When originally introduced in GTA III, the car is not seen driven on the streets of Portland Island, but is parked in various locations in the island; in GTA Liberty City Stories, the car is present in Portland traffic.

During development of GTA III, the Kuruma was originally known as the "Sentinal", not to be confused by the Sentinel which is another sedan in the final version of the same game that was previously known as the "Beamer" during development.

Performance

In GTA III, the Kuruma has a V6 engine and a FWD powertrain. Whilst the engine is powerful enough to propel the light Kuruma to high straight line speeds, the front wheel drive layout causes understeer. Players may therefore favor using the handbrake to swing round turns at high speed. In GTA: Liberty City Stories, it is powered by a small, yet gusty, four cylinder engine.

Nonetheless, the car's firm handling makes it a good choice for the first LCS car race in the mission Grease Sucho.

The Kuruma possesses almost identical handling properties to the GTA III rendition of the Taxi.

Trivia

Kuruma also exists as a car manufacturer in another popular Rockstar game Midnight Club. It has one model called the Faasuto (based on a Mazda RX-7 and a Nissan 240SX) with 3 variants: The GR, GS, and GT. It should also be noted that this is a hidden car and in order to unlock it and its versions, you have to find 3 hidden markers in the city of London.

The Kuruma is referenced in an episode of crime drama NCIS where a witness tells Agent McGee that a getaway car was a "Kuruma", and later explains to his confused superiors: "Kuruma is the name of a car in Grand Theft Auto III. It’s a Chrysler Sebring sedan." A video of the exchange can be found here.